5️⃣ DOJ Pregames the Midterm Steal

The Justice Department has sued 29 states and Washington D.C. demanding unredacted voter rolls — driver’s licenses, partial Social Security numbers, all of it. They’ve lost in California, Michigan, and Oregon. Now they’re appealing. And buried in those emergency motions is the sentence that tells you exactly what this is really about: “Absent a final court determination on this matter, there is no other process to ensure a fair election in 2026.” They don’t need to win the lawsuits. They need the language. Lose the case, keep the quote, question the midterms in November. As Dean put it, Trump is “deathly afraid” of what the polls are already showing — and this is what fear looks like when it has lawyers.

4️⃣ Marines to the Strait

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has approved deploying a Marine Expeditionary Unit to the Strait of Hormuz. Up to 2,500 Marines, ships, jets, and armor. The USS Tripoli is being rerouted from Japan. Iran has struck at least three vessels since Tuesday, Brent crude is above $100 a barrel, and gas prices are up 65 cents nationwide. Dean didn’t mince it: Iran has been militarizing the strait asymmetrically for 47 years, they’ve effectively created an “Iran Easy Pass” letting China and India through while targeting American-aligned shipping, and sending Marines into that environment is “unmitigated disaster waiting to happen.” The war was supposed to be quick. It isn’t.

3️⃣ Trump Hands Putin $150 Million a Day

In the middle of fighting a war with Iran, the Trump administration lifted sanctions on Russian oil. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced it Thursday night. The Kremlin’s reaction was triumphant. Ukraine said it was in mourning. Europe refused to follow. The Treasury Department issued a general license allowing 128 million barrels of Russian oil at sea to be sold anywhere in the world — and Russia is now receiving more than $150 million per day in extra revenue. “It’s plainly obvious who’s calling the shots here,” Zev said. Dean connected it directly to the desperation thread running through the whole show: a patch deal with Russia for oil, Cohen and Loomer weaponized against independent journalists — “it’s the last legs of this administration, of this regime.”

2️⃣ Six Americans Dead in Iraq Crash

All six U.S. Air Force crew members aboard a KC-135 refueling tanker that crashed over Iraq Thursday are dead. It was a midair collision with another KC-135. Both aircraft had taken off from Ben Gurion Airport in Israel. Dean invoked Ken Harbaugh and Denver Riggleman — decorated veterans both, and both “beside themselves” over the loss. “My heart goes out mostly to the families of those soldiers,” Dean said. The crash brings total U.S. deaths in the Iran war to 13 — and the KC-135, the circulatory system of this air campaign, is an asset that cannot easily be replaced. The U.S. burned through four years of smart munitions in four days. Now they’re losing the planes that keep the remaining aircraft in the air.

1️⃣ Iran’s Leader: Wounded, In Hiding

Three days after Mojtaba Khamenei was proclaimed Iran’s new Supreme Leader, he has not appeared in public, has not appeared on video, and has not issued a public statement. Three Iranian officials told the New York Times he was injured on February 28 — the opening day of the U.S.-Israeli attack — including injuries to his legs. Two Israeli intelligence officials independently confirmed the assessment. Iran’s state media has been calling him the “wounded war veteran” supreme leader. When the foreign ministry was asked directly whether he had assumed command, the spokesman said only: “Those who have to receive the message have received the message.” Dean’s read: it doesn’t matter. “The regime is not going away. Not going to stop.” The IRGC is layered, the sleeper cells are activated, and the ideology doesn’t require a functioning figurehead. The U.S. declared war on a country of 93 million people that has been preparing for this for 47 years — and nobody told Trump that.

Before all of it — a note on what’s happening to this show. Michael Cohen went on Rumble with Lara Trump and announced a podcast with Laura Loomer. The same week, coordinated accounts seeded the FiveStack community trying to turn the hosts against each other. Different messages to different people. Classic friction operation. Dean addressed it directly: “There is no DM that’s going to get between us.” Zev: “This is a place where people can talk about things they care about — and if you’re here to throw us off our game, we’re going to ban you.”

The FiveStack is available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The FiveStack is a co-production of deanblundell.substack.com and narativ.org.

Thank you Lev Parnas, Ellie Leonard, This Will Hold, Centered America, Cat: Poli-Psych, and many others for tuning into my live video with Dean Blundell! Join me for my next live video in the app.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe